Koikeya Sour Cream and Onion Stick Potato

One of my particularly angry stalkers once attacked me for "micromanaging" my calories whilst simultaneously criticizing my eating habits as ones that would turn me into a fat, bloated mess of an American. Apparently, the inherent contradiction (criticizing me for watching what I eat and asserting that I will become so fat that flesh will drip off my face like molten wax) is not obvious to unhappy people who find me repugnant yet can't seem to resist reading what I write. This comes to mind because I'm about to talk about how I'm not the sort of person who grabs a can of beer and a packet of salty, fried potato goodness and plonks down in front of the T.V. after work. I'm the sort of person who eats a few chips and is satisfied with a small amount.

For people who are happy with small portions, packets of salty snacks like this one from Koikeya are nearly ideal. Well, it's not exactly ideal for me as even this 50 gram bag (1.7 oz. at 271 calories for the whole thing) takes weeks to finish. However, if you are a portion-conscious lover of chips and beer, this 100-yen ($1.24) offering might be right up your alley. I picked this up at a 100 yen shop that sells food, but I've seen it at other places around Tokyo as well (convenience stores, drug stores, etc.).

There are only two ways in which these sorts of things can fail and one is rare and the other common. The rare failure is with the presentation of the fried potato sticks themselves. They might not be crispy enough, or may be too greasy or carry a funky taste from the type of oil they are fried in. Fortunately, that was not an issue. The other possible problem is that the flavoring is strange or too weak, particularly the latter. In Japan, a lot of flavored salted snacks are on the weak side for my crude American palate, but these did not let me down. The onion flavor is potent and the sour cream just about right.

Usually, I rate Japanese treats by how they uniquely present their flavors, but for things like this, I'm really looking for an experience which parallels those that I had back home. For a potato stick, which is pretty much the same across cultures, the best I can hope for is that it tastes the way I want it to taste and doesn't have some bizarre variation meant to suit Japanese tastes. This didn't have any weirdness, and was very satisfying. It was like a taste of home.

Calbee Jaga Rico Tuna Mayo

When I was working in an office, I used to pick up plain Jaga Rico potato sticks as a substitute for potato chips. I'm not sure why I felt they were better for me than chips, but I believe that eating a whole cup of these tends to set you back about 290 calories (for 58 grams/2 oz.) whereas a bag of chips is about 450. I'm guessing it was pure portion control rather than any actual reduction in calories that made these less calorically dense. These sticks are hollow, so you get the illusion of eating more of them while consuming less volume.

This line of products by Calbee portrays a cartoon giraffe as its mascot. If you go to their web site, you can see various permutations of their cute long-necked buddy. I'm guessing they chose a giraffe because the long neck on it is reminiscent of the long, straw-like potato snacks.


Previously, I reviewed the umeboshi (sour plum) jaga rico potato sticks and was unimpressed. It wasn't that there was anything wrong with them, but rather that the flavor was so weak that I could barely taste the sour plum. I found this tuna mayonnaise flavor at a local supermarket for 128 yen ($1.44). There seemed to be quite a bloom in flavors, but this was the one I was most attracted to because I love tuna salad.

An illustration on the cup says that the tuna flavor has been enhanced on this, but you can't smell it when you give it a sniff. At first, I tasted the same sort of greasy flavor that comes along with the plain jaga rico flavor, then a mayonnaise flavor. The tuna comes through only at the very end as a faint aftertaste. I'm not sure how much they enhanced the tuna taste, but it wasn't enough. These are super crunchy, and not too salty.

They're not bad, but just like the umeboshi potato sticks of the same brand, these just don't carry enough flavor. That greasy taste that is carried at the start is a bit off-putting as well. I didn't hate these by a long shot, but I didn't love them. I'll certainly slowly make my way through the foil-lined cup of these sticks, but I wouldn't buy them again.

Umeboshi (Pickled Plum) Potato Sticks

When I was a kid, I didn't care much for pickles, but I did like to drink small amounts of the pickling juice from the far as it emptied of cucumbers. I like to think that the ability to consume something so intensely salty and sour at a young age paved the way for me to enjoy umeboshi when I got to Japan. Umeboshi are tiny little pickled plums that are often placed atop the rice portion of a bento (box lunch). You also see them set out on tables in little covered dishes at restaurants for patrons to partake of with various dishes. They're small, wrinkled little fruits which look like a red raisin that has bloated up to about ten times its normal size.


Since umeboshi are so sour, Japanese people delight in asking foreign folks residing in Japan if they can stomach them. It comes in third place in the "can you eat it" game. For the record, natto (fermented soybeans) is number one on the list and sushi is two. I can eat them straight with no problem, but I think many people find them too intense to eat even as an accompaniment to other foods.

Enter these processed potato sticks by Calbee. They are advertised as tasting "faintly" or lightly of umeboshi. These snacks don't smell much at all like anything other than fried potato snack, but not in terms of smelling much like chips. They smell like generic processed fried food with a vague hint of vinegar if you stick it right up to your nose and inhale deeply (the things I do for these reviews). I don't think umeboshi carry much of their own smell, so not much can be expected on that front.

The sticks are super crunchy and lightly salted. They taste mostly like potato, but there is a slightly sour finishing taste. Even though there are little flecks of plum in them, the taste is very subdued. These are clearly designed for umeboshi sissies who can't take much strong flavor. Since I like the intense sourness and saltiness of umeboshi, they seemed about a half step removed from plain Calbee sticks to me.

These weren't bad, but I wouldn't buy them again. The main reason for that is that these are fairly densely caloric at 287 calories for 58 grams (2 oz.) and I don't especially prefer slightly greasy straws of processed potato to chips or rice crackers. I'd go for something with more flavor or with less processing. However, if you want to dip a wary toe into the waters of umeboshi consumption, these may not be the worst place to start.

Karu Jyaga (Curl/Light Potato) (salt flavor)

The potato is one of the most versatile foods mankind has at its disposal. It's not enough that it's the only vegetable that we actually enjoy eating, but we're also gifted with the ability to find a multitude of fun ways to eat them. In order to appeal to our sense of novelty, snack food companies continuously endeavor to process the potato in different fashions. Generally, this means changing the shape and adding different spice mixes. Glico seems to have come up with a new one and it's a little difficult to explain. Well, it's not difficult, but weird. The karu jyaga potato snack is essentially a processed potato tube.


These are not to be confused with potato straws or sticks. These are not airy and puffed. It's like someone took a chip and rolled it around a chopstick and then fried it up and salted it. Of course, as the box says, these are not fried. As the box doesn't say, they are also not made from real potatoes. They're like a more potato-like version of a Pringles chip so I'm guessing we're talking dehydrated potato re-hydrated and made into some sort of dough and wrapped around a pipette and baked. Each stick is about 5 inches long and too uniform to be a real potato slice, though they are a very good approximation of a real chip.

Aside from presentation, there's not really a whole lot going on with these. They smell like potato chips. They taste like potato chips with light salt and they crunch like chips. They're just much more fun to eat and a little more expensive than a bag of chips. A 55 gram/1.9 oz. box was about 150 yen ($1.50). As a point of comparison, a 70 gram/2.46 oz. bag of "Rich Cut" chips is only 100-120 yen ($1-$1.20) and they're considered premium chips. The other point about these is they seem pretty high in calories for something which is baked. The entire box has 281 calories which is just a few fewer calories than regular fried chips when you compare the weight and calorie counts. (One ounce of Lay's plain potato chips is 150 calories.)

Still, being able to whip our a packet of potato tubes or pretend you're an astronaut enjoying a space age salted treat is possibly worth the higher price. Also, I think that the name of this product is a play on words. "Ka-ru" is Japanese-English for "curl" (and these are like super tight curled up potatoes) and karui is "light". So, if you are big on tube-shaped products with word plays that are trying too hard to be clever (and, frankly, who isn't?), this becomes an even cooler snack option.

Hokkaido Choco Potato Crunch

Two of my students recently returned from a holiday in France. They gave me a small box of salty butter cookies as a souvenir. The one who gave it to me said that salty sweets are currently "a la mode" (in the style). This is true not only in France, but in the U.S. and Japan as well. Salty caramels are particularly hot right now in America. In Japan, one of the most popular salty sweets is called "potechi". It is crushed potato chips covered in chocolate and can be bought at department stores. They are somewhat expensive, but very good.

When I saw a box of chocolate-covered potato sticks at the local 99 yen shop (like a dollar store in the U.S.), I figured that the salty sweet trend had gone mainstream. I picked up the box and decided to give it a try. After all, the front of the box says something like 'sweet and salty, you can't wait!' Who am I to argue with their assessment of my patience to try their product?


The box makes a point of letting you know that the potatoes used in the sticks have been grown in Hokkaido. In Japan, Hokkaido is like the Idaho of potatoes and mentioning the regions of origin of various ingredients is a common selling point. I'm not sure how much of the quality of the potato matters when they've been cut into slivers, deep fried, and covered in chocolate, but I'm guessing that isn't really the important point when marketing a food item.

There are 8 chocolates in the box. Each is individually wrapped in gold foil with "Tasty Crunch" and "Hokkaido Choco Potato" written across it. When freed from their gilded packages, they smell of sweet chocolate. The chocolate is milk, but has a stronger, deeper smell than some milk chocolate. The more expensive version of this type of chocolate (Potechi) is made by dropping crushed chips into a circular mold and filling it to a high point with chocolate. In the pricier department store variety, you can see an even base of chocolate around the bottom where the ample quantity of chocolate has pooled. In these cheap ones, they've clearly opted to use less chocolate. There is an incomplete "base" around them and a few spots where pockets of air were in the molds.

When you bite into these, they have a very nice crunch and a decent chocolate taste, but something is a bit off. The potatoes seem to carry a strange taste which gets more pronounced as you chew. At first, I thought they were perhaps recycling potato sticks past their due date in these and that's why they tasted funny. When I looked at the ingredients, I realized that the odd flavor was from "cheese powder" that had been added to them. I have no idea what compelled Meiji to add cheese powder to a chocolate/chip combination, but it ruins the flavor.

If it weren't for the weird cheese taste being thrown in there, I think these might be quite good, but it's hard to say for certain. These are worse for you nutritionally due to the fried potato aspect and pack more calories than your average treat at 45 calories per small block. I wouldn't buy these again and I'm very likely to simply throw away the rest of them. The box promises "tasty crunch", and they are crunchy, but not so tasty.